The way to counteract this is simple. If your local surplus store starts asking for ID for items that the law does require it, tell them to go to hell. Something Oathkeepers ought to do is create a list of stores who have publicly refused to be stampeded by this obvious attempt to coerce them. More comments below.

An FBI Denver Joint Terrorism Task Force handout being distributed to Colorado military surplus store owners lists the purchase of popular preparedness items and firearms accessories as “suspicious” and “potential indicators of terrorist activities,” instructing store owners to keep records on and report people who:

Preventing terrorism is a community effort. By learning what to look for, you can make a positive contribution in the fight against terrorism. The partnership between the community and law enforcement is essential to the success of anti -terrorism efforts.

Some of the activities, taken individually, could be innocent and must be examined by law enforcement professionals in a larger context to determine whether there is a basis to investigate. The activities outlined on this handout are by no means all-inclusive but have been compiled from a review of terrorist events over several years.

The handout encourages surplus store owners and employees to provide information on “suspicious” customers by calling the Denver Joint Terrorism Task Force or the Colorado Information Analysis Center. This handout is very nearly identical to one issued by the FBI to gun stores from Connecticut to Utah: PDF

This new handout expands the absurdity by now also targeting customers of military surplus stores, and by specifically targeting the purchasing of very common, and very popular, preparedness items such as Meals Ready to Eat (MRE’s) as “potential indicators of terrorist activities.”

While this particular handout is being given to military surplus store owners in Colorado, it is nearly certain that similar versions are being handed out by Joint Terrorism Task Forces in other states. Anyone who has seen such a handout, or who has a copy of one, please contact us at tips@oathkeepers.org. You know, “if you see something, say something!” It may be a potential indicator of government terrorist (tyranny and chilling of speech) activities. Remember, combating tyranny is a community effort and you can make a difference! – Oath Keepers

These are very common purchases, not for terrorists, but for Preppers and Survivalists, who are obviously the targets of the FBI profile, not secret Al-Qaeda agents. The handout goes on to list behaviors such as “making anti-U.S. or radical theological comments (?)” or “insisting on paying in cash”, as signs of terrorism. It even instructs store owners to subtly interrogate their customers in order to draw a fuller profile. THIS IS CALLED CITIZEN SPYING. Period.

The FBI Denver Handout is a perfect example of the oligarchic quest not for community participation, but for hardcore collectivism. That is to say, corrupt leaderships are not interested in community safety, or the elevation of individuals which make up a neighborhood, town, or city, but the manipulation of these people into mere extensions of the state itself. A procedure by which individuals are subdued and conscripted as mouthpieces and listening devices; weapons to be used, not to safeguard their community, but to enslave it.

The Counter Extremism Program falsely paints an image of community cooperation with federal agencies as balanced and mutual. It attempts to deflect fears of Orwellian oversight by suggesting the introduction of “Community Advisory Boards”, which would ostensibly wield the power to demand transparency in federal activities. In fact, such advisory boards are the perfect petri dish in which to condition local leaders into furthering the goals of centralization. As in despotic societies of the past, they go in thinking they are in charge, and come out as brainscrubbed servants of a dishonest regime. In this way, communities are pacified and wielded for state purposes, until those left who refuse to conform become utterly surrounded and fearful, never knowing who is and who is not watching their every move.

The fact that the Fibbies are doing this simply telegraphs their own fear of the constitutional militias and others who are self-sufficient and prepared.

Those are also very common purchases in Colorado for folks who go hunting...and hunting generates about half a billion dollars a year for the state economy. I don't see a lot of cooperation for that program in the future.

BTW, what is a "night flashlight"? Is that different from the ones you use when it is dark?

A "night flashlight" is a device used by the FBI/ATF to lay in waiting in the dark of night preparing to kill innocent children, women, and men like they've done so many time like at Ruby Ridge, Waco, etc. Fuckin Pussies.

And might I suggest the FBI and all the other jack booted thugs remember the law of unintended consequences.

For Anonymous at 12:10 PM:It ain't just the FBI doing this. They work closely with their fine friends in Local "Law Enforcement" through the Fusion Centers located throughout the country:http://publicintelligence.net/fusion-centers/Denver "Law Enforcement" would be coordinating with FedPig through the Colorado Information Analysis Center in Lakewood.

There are NO "good cops." Well, actually, that's not QUITE true. The ONLY good cop...

Good point Ed. But I think that in this case its the thought (the feebs) that counts. The are correct to be afraid, they should be. I know a few people that are looking around at whats going on here and in the world and already prepared to survive / fight if necessary. I know a few that are just now waking up and I suspect a run on these items as we move from this year to next. I think this run will be heightened by those who buy into 2012 stuff. Ultimately this will produce a info overload IF they even receive compliance.

Most of the surplus store owners I know, are in that business because they like military stuff and survival stuff.They are the "kings" of preppers. I can't see the owner of G.I. Joe's Surplus turning customers in for buying a t-shirt that says "Kill em' all let God sort em out" and a rain poncho. Maybe the guy at Gander Mountain... crap!

Won't work. I know for a FACT that a uniformed military intimidator was posted for weeks inside a popular gunshop in northwestern Ohio last time the ATF sent out a similar DICKtate. (Actually the wordage was more like if you don't mind, please ok would ya?) The intidator was mocked, laughed at and jeered to go find a real job. One customer stood next to him while asking the gunshop owner loudly what the bulk price was on AR15s. This went on for several weeks until the bad buys took their intimidator and went home. Didn't work then. Won't work know.

These aren't Victoria's Secret shops they are serious weapons stores for serious American citizens. Most will ignore it. Some will even say Go fuck yourself.

@Anonymous...For these jackals change that to "FBI, Fuck you and the women who bore you." They deserve nothing less.

As has been stated here and elsewhere, we are living in their minds, rent-free. Hope they try that in Florida - we'll be waiting for them. Sheez! I have enough MREs in my garage to make the National Guard suspicious. Hell, I even have a jungle hammock and a "black ops" backpack...I've gotta be on the "10 Most Wanted" list!

Kinda funny...one government agency tells you to have a certain amount of food and supplies in case of any disaster, then the other ones want to put you on a watch list for doing so.Screw them...if you're gonna be a bear, be a friggin grizzly. I'm buying as much of this stuff as I can afford.Hey, jackholes, just pay special attention of how much ammo I'm buying if you decide to come take away my MREs because I've bought too many of them. And that tingly feeling on the back of your neck when you come to storm my house...that's just the laser sights from the neighbor's firearms.

Sweet - if you are reasonably intelligent and happen to live in a blizzard, tornado, hurricane, or earthquake-prone area, you are now a terrorist, even if you are totally apolitical or even if you are a committed statist.

I would also like to turn myself in. I have several large ammo cans stuffed with rice and beans, topo maps and a compass, a nice bugout bag, a couple of knives, and worst of all the dreaded "night flashlight" with a red lens. I'm a real threat to society, I am!

This is funny and almost has to be a joke. If this is true it must have been written by one of Obamas' *ick-less manginas who has never been in a Surplus Store in their life. They view all of us as gap-toothed, drooling hillbillies who wear rabbit-fur hats and carry our smoke-poles around everyplace we go.

Another thing, if they really wanted to find subversives, people who in their earlier days threw real bombs, they would have more luck checking out the tony, older clientele at the local REI Co-op in any university district in the nation.

Let us prepare a document or flyer to be given to ALL surplus store owners and employees. We must alert them that Secret Police and Police State Agents have been spotted in their areas, attempting to get information on US citizens. These Secret Police agents are asking for names, addresses and other personal information on people who purchase survivalist oriented materials. They are attempting to turn store owners and employees into spies for their Marxist cause. The agents are part of a known communist network and should be reported at once. Please get names, addresses and telephone numbers of ANY agents who speak with you, and get that information to the heads of any local militia movements, Sovereign Citizen groups and RKBA groups. Databases are useful for future public relations campaigns.. Ask the spirit of Michael Collins.

"Progress made under the shadow of the policeman's club is false progress."

I believe that liberty is the only genuinely valuable thing that men have invented, at least in the field of government, in a thousand years. I believe that it is better to be free than to be not free, even when the former is dangerous and the latter safe. I believe that the finest qualities of man can flourish only in free air – that progress made under the shadow of the policeman's club is false progress, and of no permanent value. I believe that any man who takes the liberty of another into his keeping is bound to become a tyrant, and that any man who yields up his liberty, in however slight the measure, is bound to become a slave. -- H.L. Mencken

On the efficacy of passive resistance in the face of the collectivist beast. . .

Had the Japanese got as far as India, Gandhi's theories of "passive resistance" would have floated down the Ganges River with his bayoneted, beheaded carcass. -- Mike Vanderboegh.

In the future . . .

When the histories are written, “National Rifle Association” will be cross-referenced with “Judenrat.” -- Mike Vanderboegh to Sebastian at "Snowflakes in Hell"

"Smash the bloody mirror."

If you find yourself through the looking glass, where the verities of the world you knew and loved no longer apply, there is only one thing to do. Knock the Red Queen on her ass, turn around, and smash the bloody mirror. -- Mike Vanderboegh

From Kurt Hoffman over at Armed and Safe.

"I believe that being despised by the despicable is as good as being admired by the admirable."

From long experience myself, I can only say, "You betcha."

"Only cowards dare cringe."

The fears of man are many. He fears the shadow of death and the closed doors of the future. He is afraid for his friends and for his sons and of the specter of tomorrow. All his life's journey he walks in the lonely corridors of his controlled fears, if he is a man. For only fools will strut, and only cowards dare cringe. -- James Warner Bellah, "Spanish Man's Grave" in Reveille, Curtis Publishing, 1947.

"We fight an enemy that never sleeps."

"As our enemies work bit by bit to deconstruct, we must work bit by bit to REconstruct. Be mindful where we should be. Set goals. We fight an enemy that never sleeps. We must learn to sleep less." -- Mike H. at What McAuliffe Said

"The Fate of Unborn Millions. . ."

"The time is now near at hand which must probably determine, whether Americans are to be, Freemen, or Slaves; whether they are to have any property they can call their own; whether their Houses, and Farms, are to be pillaged and destroyed, and they consigned to a State of Wretchedness from which no human efforts will probably deliver them. The fate of unborn Millions will now depend, under God, on the Courage and Conduct of this army-Our cruel and unrelenting Enemy leaves us no choice but a brave resistance, or the most abject submission; that is all we can expect-We have therefore to resolve to conquer or die." -- George Washington to his troops before the Battle of Long Island.

"We will not go gently . . ."

This is no small thing, to restore a republic after it has fallen into corruption. I have studied history for years and I cannot recall it ever happening. It may be that our task is impossible. Yet, if we do not try then how will we know it can't be done? And if we do not try, it most certainly won't be done. The Founders' Republic, and the larger war for western civilization, will be lost.

But I tell you this: We will not go gently into that bloody collectivist good night. Indeed, we will make with our defiance such a sound as ALL history from that day forward will be forced to note, even if they despise us in the writing of it.

And when we are gone, the scattered, free survivors hiding in the ruins of our once-great republic will sing of our deeds in forbidden songs, tending the flickering flame of individual liberty until it bursts forth again, as it must, generations later. We will live forever, like the Spartans at Thermopylae, in sacred memory.

-- Mike Vanderboegh, The Lessons of Mumbai:Death Cults, the "Socialism of Imbeciles" and Refusing to Submit, 1 December 2008

"A common language of resistance . . ."

"Colonial rebellions throughout the modern world have been acts of shared political imagination. Unless unhappy people develop the capacity to trust other unhappy people, protest remains a local affair easily silenced by traditional authority. Usually, however, a moment arrives when large numbers of men and women realize for the first time that they enjoy the support of strangers, ordinary people much like themselves who happen to live in distant places and whom under normal circumstances they would never meet. It is an intoxicating discovery. A common language of resistance suddenly opens to those who are most vulnerable to painful retribution the possibility of creating a new community. As the conviction of solidarity grows, parochial issues and aspirations merge imperceptibly with a compelling national agenda which only a short time before may have been the dream of only a few. For many Americans colonists this moment occurred late in the spring of 1774." -- T.H. Breen, The Marketplace of Revolution: How Consumer Politics Shaped American Independence, Oxford University Press, 2004, p.1.